Tag Archives: Gluten free baking

The black beans are flavoured with a Mexican slant, and the topping reflects that too with tomatoes, herbs, avocado, radish and sweetcorn. And when they’re combined for serving the gorgeous black of the soup looks amazing with the brightly coloured topping!

But just as good as the soup are the stuffed masa harina flatbreads, with their crisped outer and soft herby potato centre.

The masa harina is combined with tapioca flour to give a lovely springy dough, which is really easy to work with and has a lovely flavour. We’ll be making them again, trying out lots of different fillings!

250 g tomatoes, roughly chopped. We used a mixture of different coloured cherry tomatoes

juice of half a small lemon

15 g fresh coriander, chopped

15 g fresh parsley, chopped

a pinch of salt

2 avocados, diced

4 radishes, sliced

50 g sweetcorn. We used tinned

for the stuffed masa harina flatbreads

200 g masa harina

100 g tapioca flour

a large pinch of salt

380 ml hot water

6 tbsp nicely flavoured oil, 2 for the dough and 4 for cooking. We used cold pressed rapeseed oil

200 g potatoes, diced

1 tbsp unsweetened soy yoghurt

juice of half a small lemon, start with half of it and taste before adding the rest

10 g fresh coriander, chopped

10 g fresh parsley, chopped

salt and pepper

To make the soup, put all of the ingredients apart from the salt in a large ovenproof casserole dish. Stir, put the lid on and cook in the oven at 160 degrees c for 45 minutes to 1 hour until the beans are tender. Blend until smooth (we used an immersion blender), and add salt to taste. We did this the day before, which helps with timing if you have one oven as the flatbreads cook at a higher temperature.

Next make the dough. In a large bowl mix together the masa harina, tapioca flour and salt. Add the oil, reserving ½ a tsp. Pour in the water and mix to a soft dough. Tip it out onto a board and knead, just until it comes together smoothly. Form into a ball and pop it back in the bowl. Rub over the ½ tsp of oil (this will stop it drying out), and loosely cover. Rest for at least 30 minutes.

For the masa harina flatbread filling, cook the potatoes (we used the microwave), roughly mash with the salt and pepper and leave to cool. Fold through the yoghurt, lemon juice and herbs.

To make the flatbreads, first divide the dough into 4. Roll each piece out into a round about 2 mm thick, take a quarter of the potato filling and place it in the middle. Fold the dough around the potato and carefully roll it out again, flipping every 3 or 4 rolls until it’s about 20 cm in diameter. The dough likely won’t stick together, but this is fine. Repeat with the other three pieces of dough. Rub ½ tbsp of oil into each side of the flatbreads and transfer to baking sheets. We needed to use two. Bake at 200 degrees c for 30 minutes, turning half way through.

While the flatbreads are cooking make the avocado salsa topping. Combine the tomatoes, herbs, salt and lemon juice and mix well. You can either mix the avocado, radish and sweetcorn into the tomatoes at this point, or keep them separate for layering.

Warm the black bean soup through if needed and then either top the soup with the salsa in the pan as we did, or ladle it into individual bowls and then add the topping. Serve with the masa harina flatbreads, cut into quarters.

As is often the case, my photography skills in no way match the deliciousness of the recipes… After making them three times, I have either forgotten to photograph them at all, or taken pretty odd photographs of these sausage rolls (I think maybe I was trying to be arty).

Don’t let the picture put you off though, this sausage roll recipe is ace! It’s definitely my favourite recipe out of everything that we made for a Christmas buffet, and Alex’s too. They went down immensely well with everyone!

The pastry isn’t exactly the cheapest, being made with rather a lot of ground almond, but it stays tender for a couple of days after it’s baked which can be a difficult thing to achieve with gluten free pastry!

The filling uses traditional sausage flavourings, along with rusk and tofu and is savoury and moreish. We get our gluten free rusk here, it’s great for sausage mixes and burgers too. You could probably use gluten free breadcrumbs instead of rusk, although we haven’t tried it. If you do choose to, be careful of the amount of water you add to the filling, you’ll probably need less than we’ve specified in the recipe.

We firmly believe that is important to make more of these sausage rolls than you think you’ll need, it’s almost impossible to stop eating them. But if you do end up with any leftovers, they reheat beautifully!

The sausage filling is great, we’ve got more recipes using it to come soon!

Before starting, freeze the block of vegetable fat for around 2 hours. It shouldn’t be completely frozen but this will make it much easier to grate.

Using a balloon whisk, mix together the rice flour, almonds, cornflour, tapioca starch, potato starch, xanthan gum and salt until well combined.

Grate the fat into the flour mixture, dipping the end of the fat into the flour after each grate. This helps the strands stay more separate and not just clump back together into a block.

Toss the strands in the flour mix and then lightly rub them in to get rid of any large lumps.

Add the soy milk, starting with 80 ml and mix together with flours and fat until it can be formed into a soft, slightly sticky ball (or lump!)

Wrap in cling film or a bag and chill for around an hour, this helps the pastry to firm up.

To make the filling, first dissolve the yeast extract in the hot water.

Next add the rusk, allspice, caraway, sage, salt and tapioca to a large bowl and mix together. Crumble in the tofu (no need to press it first), pour in the coconut oil, and then the water and yeast extract. Mix well and leave for 10 minutes to allow the rusk to soak up the water. I find it easiest to squodge it all together using my hands. You can use a food processor if you like.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees c.

Split the chilled pastry into 4 and roll the first piece into a rectangle around 10 cm x 40 cm and 2 mm thick. Trim the short edges and cut the rectangle into 6 pieces.

Split the filling into 4, and then each quarter into 6 pieces. Roll each piece into a sausage around 10 cm long and 1.5 cm across. Lay the sausage on the first piece of pastry and roll, it should fit nice and snugly. The pastry can be prone to cracking, don’t worry if this happens, just lightly pinch the edges back together. Transfer the sausage roll seam side down to a baking tray and pat down slightly. Then repeat with the rest of the pastry and filling to end up with 24 rolls. You can trim the ends at this point if you like, but we don’t bother.

Cut slashes through the pastry in the top of each roll, at an angle and about 1 cm apart.

Bake for 25 minutes, until just starting to turn golden.

The sausage rolls are gorgeous hot or cold, but if you’re making them in advance for a party it’s really nice to heat them through for a few minutes in the oven before serving. This also crisps up the pastry a little.

We wanted to make a Christmas treat with similar flavours to stollen, lots of dried fruit, spices and yumminess. These really exceeded our expectations, they are moist, slightly chewy and full of Christmassy goodness!

The aquafaba and ground almond mix is a bit of a star, and can be made without any of the dried fruit and nuts to make a lovely soft cookie.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees c and line a tray with baking paper.
Using a hand or stand mixer beat the aqua faba until it forms soft peaks. As aquafaba varies in strength, this can take anywhere 4 to 8 minutes.
Beat in the sugar until mixture is glossy and forms stiff peaks. Next beat in the xanthan gum, salt and mixed spice.
Fold in the ground almonds, pistachios, cherries, mixed peel and raisins until well combined. The aquafaba meringue mixture will lose volume, this is correct.
Using two dessert spoons make quenelles of the mixture and drop them carefully onto the lined tray.
Bake for 20 minutes until attractively browned.
When cool, dust with the icing sugar.

The first time we made this recipe we wrote it up with the title ‘the best of biscuits’, and they really are the nicest we’ve made so far! And we’ve made a lot of biscuits…
The oat flour adds a gorgeous toasty flavour, and adding whole oats too gives them a great texture. They’re a cookie type of biscuit, so crisp round the edges and chewy in the middle, and they’re perfect for dunking in tea!
You could omit the peanuts if you like, but they’re so good with the chocolate that it would be a shame to leave them out 🙂

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees c and line two trays with baking paper.
Sift together the oat flour, cornflour and baking powder and mix in the oats and salt.
Cream together the margarine and sugar. Add the flour and oat mixture and beat together until everything is well combined.
Lastly add the chocolate chips and peanuts and mix well to ensure they are evenly distributed. It should be a sticky dough.
Divide the mixture into 12 balls and lay 6 on each tray, with plenty of space around as they spread a lot while baking. Pat them down a little. You can do them in two batches if you only have one tray, the dough is fine to sit a while.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the edges are browned.
Cool completely before eating to let them set.

We actually didn’t expect this beetroot bread to turn out such an amazing colour!
The crust stays a beautiful bright pink and the inside, due to the yellow corn meal, turns a lovely soft orange colour.
And as well as looking spectacular, it tastes good too! The beetroot powder adds a slight sweetness and earthy flavour which is really delicious.
This is a loaf that gets better as it keeps, the texture is nicest after a couple of days. But it’s hard to keep it that long, and thankfully it’s yummy freshly baked too!

Whisk together the tepid water, yeast and sugar and leave for around 10 minutes until frothy.
Mix together the tapioca flour, millet flour, rice flour, corn meal, beetroot powder, xanthan gum and salt. Use a balloon whisk, it’s easier to get it all properly combined that way.
Tip the yeast mixture and oil into the flour and beat together until well combined. It should be a thick batter.
Tip into a non stick 750 ml loaf tin and smooth the top. Cover with oiled cling film and prove for around half an hour until the batter has risen just over the top of the tin. It’s important to oil the cling film or the batter will stick to it!

Beetroot bread batter ready to be baked

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees c.
When the batter has proved bake for 40 – 45 minutes until the loaf has risen, formed a nice crust, and feels hollow when the bottom is tapped.

Both Alex and I really enjoy making cupcakes, but are not at all fond of the type topped with mountains of super sweet buttercream!
So here we’ve gone for a light soy yoghurt custard, somewhat like a creme pattisiere, and a pretty arrangement of glazed fruit.
They’re delicious, the lemon polenta cake goes beautifully with the custard and fruit, and they’re not too sweet.
And they make such a cute display all lined up together!

The lemon polenta cupcakes looking ever so pretty (we made a double batch which is why there’s more than 12!)

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees c and prepare a 12 hole muffin tray with paper cases.
For the cakes, mix all of the ingredients together in a food processor until well combined. Divide the mixture between the 12 cases, and then bake for 25 – 35 minutes, until the top of the cakes springs back from a gentle push. Cool the cakes thoroughly.
To make the custard, mix the custard powder and sugar with a little of the soy milk to form a paste. Heat the remaining soy milk in a saucepan until almost boiling, and then pour slowly into the custard paste, stirring all the time. Pour the lot back into the pan and heat slowly, still stirring, until it thickens.
Beat in the soy yoghurt and vanilla. Cool.
When the custard is completely cool whisk in the xanthan gun 1/4 tsp at a time until it holds a peak when the whisk is removed.
Make up the jelly glaze while the custard is cooling.
For each cupcake, pipe (or spoon) about 1 1/2 tbsp of the yoghurt custard onto the top if the cake, arrange the fruit slices on top (1 piece of each fruit per cake), and then brush a thin layer of glaze over the top. Allow to set for 30 minutes.

If you have a food processor with a grater this warm dip takes mere minutes to put together, but even if you don’t it’s worth a little longer prep time.
It’s immensely satisfying, sort of like a vegan version of fondue!
The pitta crisps are made using the dough we blogged about here, and they’re so good… absolutely perfect for dipping!

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees c.
Mix all of the grated vegetables together in the baking dish.
To make the sauce, heat the soy milk in a small saucepan until just about to simmer. Mix in the slaked cornflour, and salt and beat until thick. The sauce should be very thick to counteract the liquid that the vegetables will release.
Turn the heat off and beat in the oil, black pepper, dill, parsley, ramsons, nutritional yeast and tapioca.
Mix the hot sauce with the vegetables and smooth over the top. Bake for 20 minutes and then mix the edges, which will be starting to brown, into the middle. Smooth the top again and bake for a further 20 minutes.
To make the dough mix together the cassava, millet and rice flours with the potato starch, xanthan gum and salt in a large bowl using a balloon whisk. This ensures that all the flours are distributed evenly.
Add the water slowly and mix using a wooden spoon. You may not need all of the water, the dough should be fairly soft and slightly sticky. When the dough has come together, knead it briefly to ensure everything in mixed together well. Bring the dough into a ball, and cover with clingfilm to stop it drying out. Leave to rest for at least 30 minutes. If you don’t rest it, the dough will be difficult to roll and liable to fall apart. While the dough is resting mix together the oil, oregano, ramsons and salt and set aside.
When the dip is done cover it with foil to keep warm and turn the oven up to 220 degrees c. Pop the oiled trays in to heat up.
Divide the dough into two and roll one piece out very thinly, about 1 mm. Drizzle the flavoured oil over the top and rub it in so it covers the whole surface, you may not need quite half of it.
Take one of the trays out of the oven and transfer the dough to it. Working quickly (and carefully so as not to burn yourself!) Cut the dough into rough triangles, a pizza wheel is quickest for this but a sharp knife is good too. Put the tray back in the oven.
Repeat with the other half of the dough.
Bake each tray of crisps for 10 -12 minutes until they are puffed up in places, golden, and lovely and crunchy.
Spoon the dip into bowls and serve with the pitta crisps.

We’ve been playing with different combinations of flours and consistencies of doughs recently, and this one has emerged as our definite favourite!
The millet flour gives the dough a really lovely flavour, like wholemeal bread, and as long as it’s rested after mixing is easy to work with.
It started off as a dough for potsticker dumplings, and it works very well in that capacity, but we found that it really comes into its own when baked. We’ve made pizza style garlic bread with it, and calzones, and pitta crisps (recipe to come for those…), all of which were great!
But the fact that the dough puffs up beautifully in the oven is most exciting, it means we can have pitta breads!
Also exciting, is the fact that the pittas can be frozen when when the dough is raw and baked straight from the freezer. Hooray!

To make the dough mix together the cassava, millet and rice flours with the potato starch, xanthan gum and salt in a large bowl using a balloon whisk. This ensures that all the flours are distributed evenly.
Add the water slowly and mix using a wooden spoon. You may not need all of the water, the dough should be fairly soft and slightly sticky. When the dough has come together, knead it briefly to ensure everything is mixed together well. Bring the dough into a ball, and cover with clingfilm to stop it drying out.
Leave to rest for at least 30 minutes. If you don’t rest it, the dough will be difficult to shape and liable to fall apart.
When the dough has rested turn the oven to 220 degrees c and pop a tray in to heat up. Divide the dough into 16 pieces and shape each one into a rough oval, patting them out using your hands on a board dusted with plenty of rice flour.
Each oval should be around 0.5 cm thick. Rub a very little oil on the top of each oval.
Cook the pittas in batches on the hot tray for 10 – 12 minutes, until puffed up nicely.

The teacake is a beautiful thing. Soft biscuit, jam and airy mallow all encased in a chocolate dome. It’s such a treat!
We’ve been thinking about having a go at a vegan, gluten free version for a while, pretty much since we heard about aquafaba!Aquafaba is the cooking liquid (or canning liquid) from legumes, often chickpeas, and can mimic egg whites. It whips up really well, so we’ve used it as the base of our mallow filling.
Rather than beat in lots of icing sugar as you would for a traditional meringue or marshmallow, we’ve used sugar syrup and a little xanthan gum which gives a lovely airy finish with very little sugar (comparatively!). It’s a long recipe, but none of the steps are difficult and they’re such a joyful thing to make!

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees c.
Melt 150 g of the chocolate, we use use the microwave in 15 second bursts. Put a tsp of chocolate into the first dome and smooth it out. Add more chocolate until the dome is covered with a thin layer.
Repeat with the other domes, you should have used about half of the chocolate. Refrigerate the domes for 10 minutes.
Give the chocolate a quick burst in the microwave if it has started to set, and add another layer to the domes. Pop them back into the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
While the domes are setting, make the biscuits. Cream together the margarine and sugars in a large bowl. Beat in the vanilla. Add the rice flour, baking powder xanthan gum and salt and mix well.
Add the soy milk if it feels a bit dry, it should come together as a soft dough. Pat the dough out on a lightly greased tray to about 3/4 cm thickness. The shape isn’t important as long as you make sure that you will be able to cut 6 biscuits out of it.
Bake for 15 minutes.
While the biscuit is still soft cut the rounds out, but leave them on the tray to cool and set.

The biscuit bases

Next make the vanilla mallow. Make simple syrup by dissolving 25 g sugar in 25 ml water over a medium heat. Leave to cool a little, although it still needs to be quite hot for the mallow.
Beat the aquafaba in a large bowl until it reaches the soft peak stage, around 5 minutes. While the beaters are still going, slowly pour in the hot sugar syrup. Sprinkle the xanthan gum over the top and add the vanilla. Beat again until well combined.

Light, airy vanilla mallow

Now to assemble the teacakes!
Carefully loosen the edges of the chocolate dome molds and remove the domes.

Chocolate domes

Place the domes back in the molds and then fill 2/3 full with vanilla mallow. Put 1/2 a tsp of jam in the middle of each biscuit and then place jam side down into the chocolate domes. Melt the last 50 g of chocolate and cover each biscuit, smoothing it around the edges to form a seal with the dome.
Return to the fridge for 30 minutes, and then carefully remove the finished teacakes from the molds.

Doughnuts, wahey!
These are such a treat, a lovely golden crispy outer with a soft interior with ever such a slight chew. Filled with vegan custard! Or jam, jam is great too.
We’re very pleased with the dough, Alex has been experimenting more with homemade gluten free flour mixes recently and these doughnuts are one of the results.
You can even make a doughnut plait as you can see from the photograph!
They’re best eaten straight away (but really, how could you not!). But the dough could be kept covered and refrigerated for a couple of hours before frying.

Mix the gram flour, tapioca flour, potato flour, 130 g of the rice flour, the xanthan gum and baking powder in a large bowl. Mix together with a balloon whisk to make sure the gram flour doesn’t clump. Put the salt at one side of the bowl, and then the yeast and sugar at the opposite side. Tip the tepid water onto the yeast and sugar and then mix everything together well, it’s easiest to do this using your hands.
Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for 45 minutes. After this time the dough should be well risen. Tip it out onto a board floured with rice flour. It will be very, very sticky. A little at a time, work the extra 120 g of rice flour into the dough. You may not need it all, stop when the dough is malleable enough to be rolled out.
Roll out to 2 cm thick. Take a 6 cm round cutter and cut 10 rounds out. Heat the oil in a large heavy based pan until a tiny bit of dough sizzles and rises to the top. Drop the rounds into the oil, holding a slotted spoon underneath them for a few seconds. This allows the doughnut to form a skin and stops it sticking to the bottom of the pan. As they cook the doughnuts will float on the top of the oil and puff up nicely. When the underside is a deep golden colour, flip them over and cook the other side. About 4 minutes per side. If the oil bubbles a lot or the doughnuts are browning too quickly, turn the heat down.
Have the icing sugar ready in a shallow bowl and as each doughnut is done, roll it in the sugar.
Make the custard while the dough is rising. Heat the soy milk, sugar, vanilla and salt in a saucepan. When it is just below simmering point, add the cornflour and mix furiously. It will thicken and become glossy. Cook for 2 minutes stirring all the time.
Cool, and then transfer to a piping bag fitted with a narrow 0.5 cm round tip. If using the jam, pop that in a small piping bag too.
To fill the doughnuts, make a hole big enough for the piping tip with the handle of a teaspoon. Push it in and waggle it around a bit to make a cavity for the custard or jam. Push the tip into the doughnut and pipe in the filling. This works best when they are warm.
Repeat for all the doughnuts.
Eat, happily!